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So, yesterday I posted a video of an alternative method to clear an extended pistol stoppage commonly called a double-feed. More often than not, this is actually a result of a failure to extract the previously fired round but, it can also be induced by a shooter who short strokes a slide with a round already in the chamber producing an double-feed. The latter being more common with new/inexperienced shooters trying to load/reload their pistol.

The most common method for resolving this sort of stoppage is fairly straight forward. Experienced shooters will often pick up on this malfunction without even looking at the gun because the auditory and tactile feedback immediately tells them the slide has failed to go into battery. To clear the stoppage, the shooter first locks the slide to the rear. Next, the shooter rips the magazine out of the gun with his support hand and stows that magazine under his strong-side arm or tucks it into is support-side waistband area. The shooter then racks the slide vigorously at least three times. Having racked the slide, the shooter now retrieves the magazine he just pulled out of the gun or a fully charged magazine from his mag carrier and inserts it the gun smartly to seat the magazine. Finally, the shooter racks the slide to load the gun and decides if he needs to continue servicing his threat/target with additional rounds. You can see an example here…http://youtu.be/BxTcQV-4R9w.

Now, I said when I posted this “new method,” that I couldn’t vouch for it and would have to try it. A friend of the show, Mate, pointed out that Todd Louis Green of Pistol-Training.com had developed the method some years ago. Still, I said I’d try it and try it I have, with all of my medium to full-size Glocks (17, 19, 23, 34, & 35). With those guns, it works consistently and reliably. But we don’t all carry Glocks and I knew I needed to try it on other guns I have on hand. So this evening, I tried it with the 9mm M&P Shield.

Well, I can tell you that it works with my gun…Some times. Whether it works is highly dependent on how much ammunition is left in the magazine and how tightly the top round in the magazine is wedged between the round in the chamber and the feed ramp. Specifically, the method failed outright with anything less than three rounds in the magazine. And it was only marginally usable with anything less than a full magazine. And while I’m tempted to try it on my 1911s, Sigs, HKs, and other guns, the fact that it doesn’t work on a gun I carry regularly means it simply isn’t worth changing a process I already know works just fine without the added issue of discarding what might be my only/last magazine.